Technical Field
The present disclosure pertains to flashing used with siding on structures and, more particularly, to a unique design for butt joint flashing and system of dispensing the flashing.
Description of the Related Art
When siding is installed during the construction process for residential and commercial buildings, there are many instances in which two adjoining boards have a gap between them. When two boards of the siding butt up to each other, this is known as a butt joint. FIG. 1 illustrates a butt joint 10 formed at the intersection of two siding boards 12 and 14 along with an upper board 16 and lower board 18, shown for illustrating the environment of the butt joint 10. The first siding board 12 has a terminal end 20 and the second siding board 14 has a corresponding terminal end 22 that butts up against the terminal end 20 of the first siding board 12 to form a vertical seam 24. The siding boards 12, 14 are subject to expansion and contraction due to exposure to heat and rain over time, which can cause gaps in the seam 24 at the butt joint 10. These gaps can allow water, snow, and other undesirable elements to get behind the siding boards 12, 14, and 18 and cause deterioration and corrosion of the underlying structure.
To prevent the seam 24 of the butt joint 10 from causing water damage, it is industry standard to layer a piece of felt paper, flashing paper, or even aluminum behind the butt joint 10 so that any liquid or water that enters will flow downward and away from the interior of the siding structure. While this should work in theory, there are several problems that arise which can cause existing methods to fail. For example, when installers cut their own butt joint flashings, they can be inaccurate in the size and shape, and this can also become labor intensive and expensive. In addition, flashing paper does not protect the butt joint 10 from water as well as previously thought. Moreover, pre-cut and effective butt joint flashings can be expensive and unwieldy in the installation process.
Existing products on the market include a joint flashing that is basically a large pad of pre-cut flashing paper and belt clip to clip the pad on to a belt. FIG. 2 illustrates an existing pre-cut flashing paper 30 having a general rectangular shape. This pre-cut flashing paper 30 has the same disadvantages of hand cutting butt joint flashing paper in that water has been found to flow sideways across the flashing paper 30 and into the siding construction, which can compromise the integrity of the siding. Another approach has been to form the flashing out of pre-cut and treated aluminum. While aluminum has been found to slow water from going sideways, this is a very expensive and unwieldy approach. It has been demonstrated that both paper flashings and aluminum flashings, similar to those shown in FIG. 2, fail to adequately address the need of preventing water from getting through the seam 24 of the butt joint 10 shown in FIG. 1. Moreover, present day flashings fail to consider the needs of the installer who must transport, carry, position, and install the flashing so that it forms an effective seal.